Hi, everyone!  I’ve announced before that the 2011 Reinhard Mohn Prize is focused on the work that many of you do:  “Vitalizing Democracy through Participation.”  The prize carries a value of €150,000.  NCDD member Hans-Peter Meister is one of the leads on the research team for this award, and I know he would like to see more submissions from NCDD members.  Matt Leighninger (another NCDDer) is also on the research team. (Note: the deadline for nominations is August 22nd.)

Nominees should be governmental institutions (departments, administrations, towns, etc.) that have shown innovative democratic leadership by making a strong and lasting contribution to vitalizing democracy through participatory projects, program or structural measures. The prize will be awarded to a governmental institution – possibly in cooperation with a non-governmental actor – which has initiated successful projects (or programs) to vitalize democracy, to integrate underrepresented citizens and to establish new forms of democratic problem-solving capacities through participation. It is crucial that the projects and actions can be adapted to the German context, as the Bertelsmann Stiftung aims to draw on these examples of international best practice as inspiration for possible future projects.

At this point it looks like there are about a dozen nominations posted, so the odds are not too shabby if you submit a new nomination.  The current nominations (which you can vote and comment on now) including Roger Bernier’s Public Engagement Project on Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Priorities, CaliforniaSpeaks, Bridgeport, CT Community Conversations, and a few others you might recognize.

Below is the full announcement I received this morning…

Subject: Submit your Nominations to www.vitalizing-democracy.org!

Dear Ms Heierbacher,

Nominations for the Reinhard Mohn Prize (previously known as the Carl Bertelsmann-Prize) “Vitalizing Democracy through Participation” can now be publicly viewed online! Don’t miss out on the chance to nominate governmental institutions (departments, administrations, towns, etc.) that have shown innovative democratic leadership by making a strong and lasting contribution to vitalizing democracy through participatory projects, program or structural measures.

Please nominate projects at: vitalizing-democracy.org. To submit a project you can simply create a user name and password. If you nominate the winning project, you will be invited to attend the symposium and prize-ceremony being held in Germany next year as part of the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011.

Your project submission is decisive for the evaluation of your project nomination – both for the Reinhard Mohn Prize Team and other users who can rate and comment on your submission. Pictures, videos and additional documents will help communicate the objectives and the impact of the project and give a better picture of why the project is prize-worthy.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to your comments and nominations on vitalizing-democracy.org!

Best Regards,

Hans-Peter Meister and Christina Hanley
Reinhard Mohn Prize Research Team
______________________________
Dr. Hans-Peter Meister
President
Meister Consultants Group, Inc./IFOK GmbH
98 North Washington St
Boston, MA 02114
+1.617 934.4847
[email protected]

Christina Hanley
Meister Consultants Group
German Office: +49.6251.8416.72
German Mobile: +49.170.124.4387
[email protected]